Tales From Gotham City Substory: Coleman Reese
by alanish2
Summary: Coleman Reese's final message. Tales from Gotham City is a group of interlinked stories which link together into one larger story.


The following is a transcript of a note left at the scene of the apparent suicide of Mr Coleman Reese, a former Legal Advisor employed at Wayne Enterprises. Mr Reese's body was found hanging from his ceiling by a thick piece of rope. The note itself was found on a desk by his side. Unusually, the attending officers were ordered not to open the note until Commissioner Gordon arrived at the scene, at which point the note was confiscated and added to the files of an 'ongoing case'. The content of the note has so far been kept hidden.

The note reads as follows;

_This is my last statement. I want to get everything out in the open – all the secrets, all the guilt. Everything. _

_I know who Batman is. I found out while investigating the financial records of Wayne Enterprises two months ago. _

_**Bruce Wayne is Batman.**_

_When I first figured everything out I was both excited and disappointed. Excited because I thought I could exploit my knowledge for financial gain, and disappointed because I found out that the terrifying, unstoppable Batman was just a billionaire playboy who got bored with his life. But everything seemed to fit – the gadgets that he uses had to come from someone with wealth and a substantial access to research and development. _

_He uses Wayne Enterprise as his own personal toy-box. Everything that they've developed over the years is his to choose from – his vehicle was originally developed for the army, but was never put into production._

_Lucius Fox, current CEO of Wayne Enterprises, is aware of Mr Wayne's dual identity, and actively deterred me from revealing the truth, at one point even threatening me with physical violence – not directly, of course, but the insinuation was obvious._

_Everybody in Gotham seems to be aware that I appeared on television a short while ago promising to reveal the identity of the Batman to the world. Subsequently, there were many questions about why I then changed my mind._

_When the terrorist who called himself the Joker threatened to blow up a hospital if I wasn't killed before I could reveal the truth, I feared for my life. The police – including the now-Commissioner Gordon – attempted to protect me, but the threat of hundreds of lives lost in an explosion caused a kind of panic. One man fired a shot at me before I could even make it out of the building._

_Gordon and another young officer accompanied me in a car. The young officer revealed that he had a relation in a hospital, and attempted to kill me. He was prevented from doing so by Gordon. Before the young officer could be disarmed, the vehicle we were in was crashed into. Upon exiting the vehicle, we noticed that another car had moved between us and the attacking car, apparently to protect us from the full impact. I was surprised to see that the driver of this car was none other than Bruce Wayne himself. He had saved my life, despite the fact that I had threatened to reveal his identity to the world._

_I then felt an obligation to keep his secret – he had saved my life, after all, and I felt it would be unfair to destroy his._

_Then the news broke that the Batman had murdered six people, including Harvey Dent and two police officers. I am still unsure whether I believe these accusations to be true, but they had a massive impact on my own life. The people around me knew that I was aware of the identity of the Batman, and they and the police hounded me to reveal it. _

_I attempted to convince them that it had been a scam – that I was doing it to try to blackmail someone. They refused to believe me._

_People's attitude towards me declined quickly – I struggled to find a job, and there were some who were actively hostile towards me, sometimes insulting me in the street or throwing things through my windows. It's fair to say that in the last month I have felt terrified – too frightened even to step foot outside. My life has been hell._

_This came to a head recently with the visit of an FBI agent, calling herself Agent Rudra. She asked the same questions that everyone else has – who is the Batman, why are you protecting him etc. However, when I refused to tell her anything she became very threatening. She suggested that she would actively encourage the Gotham City Police to harass me, and make my life unbearable. She also suggested that, should I ever need the assistance of the emergency services, she would do everything in her power to delay them._

_Mother, father, I love you and I'm sorry, but I can't live knowing that the rest of my life will be spent running away from this secret that I hold. _

_I hope that this note finds its way to the right people._

___Coleman Reese_


End file.
